Nick Volpe was a part of three of the most famous Argo Grey Cup victories of all time, and each represented a different weather condition: a monsoon, a drought and a deep freeze.
As a player, he kicked two field goals in the 1950 Mud Bowl, the legendary game played in a quagmire at Varsity Stadium that almost resulted in an opposition player drowning on the field.
"My biggest thrill was in that Mud Bowl game," said Volpe, a versatile Canadian athlete who played safety as well as kick and back-up at quarterback. "We were playing Winnipeg and they ran a reverse. This guy named MacPhail was running for a touchdown and I came out of nowhere and caught him at the five yard-line. The team ended up giving me the game ball."
Two years later, Volpe was a member of an Argo team that defeated the Edmonton Eskimos 21-11. That game was significant in that it signalled the last championship for the Double Blue until 1983, a 31-year drought.
Eight years after that 1983 win in Vancouver, Volpe returned to the Grey Cup, this time as the Argos' player personnel director. The game was played in Winnipeg in minus 17 degree Celsius temperatures, one of the coldest games on record, and the Argos went on to defeat the Calgary Stampeders 36-21.
In the decades between his two stints with the Argos, Volpe spent most of it in the education system, where he worked his way up to retire as the superintendent of schools in Peel Region. After graduating from the University of Toronto in 1948, where he led the Blues to a Yates Cup victory, Volpe started his teaching career in 1949 at Port Credit Secondary School, where he taught physical education and latin. By 1956, he became head of the phys. ed. department, and in 1967, after a two-year stint as athletic director at the University of Toronto Schools (UTS), Volpe went on to become co-ordinator of Physical and Health Education in Burlington. He graduated to superintendent of schools in all of Halton region, and subsequently left in 1977 to take a similar position in neighbouring Peel.
"I was Russ Jackson's boss when he was principal at T.L. Kennedy (in Mississauga)," laughed Volpe.
After working part-time on CTV's football telecasts as an isolation director from 1972-1987, Volpe came back to the Argos as their player personnel director in 1988, and is still with the team as their director of Canadian scouting. On the personal front, Nick and his wife Rose Marie have five children and live in Mississauga.
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